Gabriel's Moon

Gabi's Review 

William Boyd has an impressive publishing history of 18 novels and several short story collections in which he always manages the tricky task of integrating meticulous research into a fast-paced story. His new novel follows this pattern: Gabriel's Moon is a high calibre espionage tale that echoes his earlier and highly enjoyable novels Restless and Solo. 

The novel begins with an interview between Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Gabriel Dax, a young British journalist there on assignment during the 1960s. Gabriel is also a successful (if prosaic and flowery) travel writer, and in Boyd’s inimitable way, his protagonist’s self-importance and guilelessness are gently mocked in ways that foreshadow his inevitable entanglements. Still, we sympathise with Gabriel because he is not an infallible James Bond but a character in the dark and out of his depth. After returning to London, Gabriel discovers that the recordings of his interview with Lumumba reveal a conspiracy surrounding the Prime Minister’s overthrow and murder; his fate as a pawn in the game is thereby, and entertainingly, sealed. 

A reluctant lamb to the slaughter, Gabriel is pursued by intelligence officers and sucked into the world of espionage during the Cold War. He is pressured into taking on dangerous assignments in Spain and behind the Iron Curtain, while also indulging in the delights of whiskey bars and fine dining, as well as sourcing material for his next vacuous book. Femme fatales abound in savvy MI5 agents and in sessions with an enigmatic psychoanalyst, Dr. Katerina Haas.  

While the story is pacy and plot-driven, it’s also a wonderfully sensual evocation of an era. Reading the novel was a genuine and simple pleasure. Look out for the next adventures of Gabriel Dax in a planned series of novels. 
 
Publisher's Review 

In his most exhilarating novel yet, Britain's greatest storyteller transports you from the vibrant streets of sixties London, as an accidental spy is drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession . . .

Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a tragedy- every night, when sleep finally comes, he dreams about his childhood home in flames. His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer, capturing changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War. When he's offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into a web of duplicities and betrayals.

As Gabriel's reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into the shadows. Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler, he becomes 'her spy', unable to resist her demands. But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel's new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story. . .